The FunStation
The FunStation is the first Digital Download Kiosk, allowing people an easy, fast and at the desired moment, access to digital content, like songs, videos, audiobooks and ringtones. These content can be quickly transferred to all USB devices (MP3/MP4 Players, Pen Drives), iPod’s (except iPod Touch), Mobile Phones, (via Bluetooth) and Memory Cards). Being, in this way, compatible with more than 95% of all available devices in the market.
All the content marketed at FunStation is DRM FREE (Digital Right Managements), allowing to transfer the content to other devices (Computer, Mobile, Players) with unlimited copies.
The Beginning
A musician admirer of Alvin Toffler decides to invite his friend, programmer and student of a Swiss university, to develop an idea which he believes is a good solution for the new and controversial times of music. Both invite another friend, an electronics technician and defender of the culture of free software for the enterprise.
At this moment, the FunStation was created, idealized by Bruno, Armando Périco (the developer) and Douglas Silva (the technician). After a successful presentation in Switzerland, at an event at Università della Svizzera Italiana, which resulted in a field in a major Italian TV news, Brau invites one of the best known executives in the music industry, Marcos Maynard, who accepts the challenge, becoming the youngest partner in the development of this project.
Why?
With the dramatic decrease in physical sales and the growth of digital music, the FS is shown as a new tool for selling this content. Unlike others platforms which require computer with a broadband connection to access, the FS is a physical platform installed in places of great circulation, becoming, that way, the only platform currently on the market able to attend the needs and desires of people.
While millions of people are already using some kind of digital device (a regular (popular) MP3 or a cell phone), the access to supply content for those players is still very limited.
These people, who have some kind of player, are automatically included in the digital world, but are either excluded for not having an option to supply their players with digital content according to their needs, desires and economic realities.
Besides that, the Sales of digital content on the internet do not provide satisfactory results due to a numbers of factors:
- 1) On the same platform the user has both the content sold on legal sites and the content that can be downloaded free of charge, through the sites of file sharing like PirateBay, Limewire, KazaA, Emule etc.
- 2) The waiting time for download is the same for both a paid and a free file;
- 3) s often easier to navigate in websites that share content than in the legal ones.
Moreover, the content sold on legal sites are usually with DRM (most of the popular devices do not support this content). And, the downloaded files illegally on P2P have no DRM.
Even if young people want to purchase content on legal sites, it will be difficult, since most of them do not have a credit card.
Today, the young people have no advantage in paying for digital content, since they can find this content in an illegal way, faster and easier.
The sales of digital content for mobile are also unsatisfactory. The mobile companies spend millions of dollars in advertisements and even they having millions of clients, a very small number of these clients buy digital content.
The difficulty of navigation in cell phones and the high cost of services of selling content are the responsible factors for these bad results.
How?
The FunStation makes possible to everyone who has not a computer with a broadband connection to obtain digital content. So, a huge number of people who have a digital device can become potential consumer of content, fueling their players in FunStation.
The FunStation has an easier navigation due to its touch screen with 17’’